About Us

The Pacific Center for Spiritual Formation was founded in 1984 by a group of clergy and lay leaders of diverse spiritual backgrounds who shared the experience of being trained as spiritual directors at The Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation in Washington, DC. In the summer of 1984, Francis Geddes, Carol Saysette, John Stansbury, Bill Moremen, Joanna Macy, and Rich Byrne gathered every Wednesday morning to share contemplative prayer together. Through prayer and contemplation, they felt called to offer wider opportunities for contemplative practice and spiritual deepening throughout the Bay Area. From this initial commitment grew weekly "Pilgrimage Home" contemplative practice groups, inspired by the work of Gerald May.

As others were invited to the staff and board of Pacific Center, the location and variety of program offerings grew. In addition to local contemplative practice groups, Pacific Center for Spiritual Formation has offered workshops, retreats, guest lectures, and classes.

Pacific Center has enjoyed a special relationship with the renowned Jesus scholar Marcus Borg, who has been most generous in offering lectures, workshops, and retreats. Other spiritual leaders, such as Huston Smith, the late Gerald May, and Tilden Edwards, have offered retreats, lectures, and dialogues sponsored by Pacific Center.

Pacific Center continues to offer regular opportunities for contemplative prayer, retreats, and spiritual guidance to those seeking a deeper connection to the Holy. The following are currently serving as board members for Pacific Center: Rod Dugliss, Donald Felt, Joyce Harris, and Susan Murphy.

Leaders and Founders

Rod Dugliss is the Dean of the Episcopal School for Deacons, a working ground for the nexus of prayer and praxis, contemplation and action. He is a Shalem trained spiritual director, a member of the Shalem Society for Contemplative Leadership, and on the regional staff of the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation. He co-leads Pacific Center's annual summer silent retreat on Buddhist and Christian meditation practices.

Don Felt is a long time contemplative and member of PCSF. He has completed a second career as an interim minister in the United Church of Christ, resolving conflicts and bringing hope and peace to troubled churches. His current interest is in the resurrection of the mythic power of Christian faith and practice without resort to literalism.

Jane Ferguson is Parish Partnerships Director for Catholic Charities CYO. She is a commissioned presenter of Centering Prayer by Contemplative Outreach, Ltd. and has offered introductory workshops and written about contemplative prayer and its positive effects on a person's health and spiritual life.  She is interested in the intersection of contemplative practices and social justice as they contribute to inner unity and outer social harmony.  Jane received her Doctor of Ministry in Faith and Health from Pacific School of Religion at the Graduate Theological Seminary in Berkeley.

Richard D. Flout, MFT, is a psychotherapist in private practice who has had a lifelong interest for the integration of spirituality and the psychological healing process. His experience includes leadership for church liturgy, retreats, contemplative prayer and meditation groups and a daily practice of Centering prayer. Recently, he has become an oblate with the Camaldolese Benedictine monks at the New Camaldoli Hermitage in Big Sur, California.

Francis Geddes has studied, practiced, and taught spiritual practices over the past fifty years. He retired as a spiritual director from the Lloyd Pastoral Counseling Center at the San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo. Since 1975 he led over seventy workshops in Christian healing in the context of contemplative prayer and has helped to develop healing ministries in fifteen congregations on the West Coast. Francis is a graduate of the Spiritual Guidance Program at the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation , in Bethesda, MD, and is one of the founders of Pacific Center. The title of his D. Min. dissertation at the San Francisco Theological Seminary is Healing Training in the Church. He is a retired United Church of Christ minister and a graduate of Stanford University and Yale Divinity School. Francis and his wife Virginia live in Santa Rosa.

Joyce Harris is a meditation leader, group facilitator, and a professor emeritus in Computer Science. A laywoman in the United Church of Christ, her spiritual life has been influenced by Christian, Buddhist, and Hindu practices. She is interested in building bridges between different faith traditions and the relationship of depth psychology to religious life. She co-leads the weekly contemplative practice group in Los Altos.

Katie McGovern is an Episcopal laywoman who has been leading retreats--contemplative retreats, silent retreats, and retreats for women--for 25 years. Trained in the art of spiritual direction at Mercy Center in Burlingame, CA, she offers individual spiritual direction, leads discernment committees for individuals pondering life changes, and plans Christian formation activities at St. Anselm Episcopal church in Lafayette, CA.  She is Program Director and Professor of psychology in the PsyD Program at the California Institute of Integral Studies.

Susan Murphy is a spiritual director and retreat leader, and Professor Emeritus at San Jose State University in nursing and health professions. She is a Quaker and an ordained member of Thich Nhat Hanh's Order of Interbeing, and actively practices and leads Buddhist and Christian meditation. Susan is on the regional staff of the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation.  She is also a Courage & Renewal Facilitator, offering retreats that foster personal renewal, professional integrity, and vocational clarity for educators, spiritual leaders, and others who yearn to make a difference in the world. Susan currently serves as Convener of Pacific Center, and co-leads Pacific Center's annual summer silent retreat on Buddhist and Christian meditation practices

Pam Richmond ended a 25-year career in 1999, which included organizational training in conflict resolution, cultural diversity, and women's issues.  She completed five years of study and earned her MLA from Naropa University and an interfaith ordination from the Chaplaincy Institute. She grew up steeped in mid-western Christianity and upon coming to California, became interested in mysticism and meditation practices from all of the world's great traditions.  She now serves in hospital and hospice settings, is a longtime member and meditation leader with the Pacific Center for Spiritual Formation, and is actively involved in several programs for living with dying.

Carol Saysette is one of the founding staff members of Pacific Center. She was ordained in 1981 as a minister in the United Church of Christ, and began her training as a Spiritual Director through the Shalem Institute the same year. This was very formative in her ministry, both in the parish and at the Lloyd Center, at San Francisco Theological Seminary, where she serves as both a Spiritual Director and Pastoral Counselor. Her D. Min. dissertation was entitled, Dream Work in Ministry.  Carol has led many of the retreats offered by PCSF for more than 25 years, and is especially appreciated for her leadership of silent retreats during the meaningful seasons of Advent and Lent.